Built For Escape, Oh Really?

There’s a certain electricity in downtown Los Angeles at 8 o'clock in the morning -- freight elevators clanking, makeup kits snapping open, light stands unfolding like mechanical birds -- and that’s where I cut my teeth. A glamour studio in DTLA's Art's District. Brick walls. Concrete floors. Broken bottles. Aspirations bouncing off it's grimy wall.

For more than a decade, in and out of the video and photography industry, I worked the floor and the flash -- four of those years collaborating with models from every latitude and longitude. Now, does this tie directly to a men’s swim brand? Not in the tidy, MBA-approved sense. GULF was conceived as a men’s resort line. Classic. Vintage. A nod to the era. This is not a manifesto. It’s an adventure. It’s a pulse.

I’ve always envisioned an annual photography issue -- something aspirational, not disposable. But a growing brand must be nimble. So I kept the photographic palette wide open. These shoots, every one of them, ran parallel to my work building GULF. They were not detours. They my oxygen and my escape. They were also paying my bills.

But inspiration matters.

Because men are invigorated by life, by beauty, by the promise of possibility. Pairing natural beauty, adventure, vitality -- that isn’t indulgence. It’s ignition. It’s a reminder of what drives us forward.

There is nothing wrong with being a guy.

And there is certainly nothing wrong with building something that speaks to that.

~Cheers